Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [30]
There was another flash. The man playing with his camera, Debbie thought, but she was wrong.
The man and the woman were now both looking up at the sky.
The Doctor and Debbie stared up, trying to see what they were looking at.
And the clouds parted, billowing back like a theatre curtain, to reveal a metal disc, fifty feet in diameter. There were no lights on it, no markings, no breaks in the perfect steel surface. It was almost invisible, and silent.
It drifted down towards them.
The Doctor was mumbling something under his breath. ‘It’s not spinning, or firing rocket blasts, there aren’t any visible energy fields. Something exotic, something far beyond the state of the art of the human race at this time.’
Down in the clearing, the man and the woman watched the disc descend the same way Debbie would have watched a train coming into a station. They had been expecting this, obviously. Debbie wondered if the device Mrs Hunter had been using had summoned it somehow.
The Doctor nodded over at the odd couple. ‘They don’t look happy.’
‘They seem a little tense,’ Debbie managed to agree.
The saucer stopped around ten feet above the ground and just sat in the air for a moment. Then the underside opened, and a ramp slid smoothly open.
‘There’s someone else there,’ Debbie told the Doctor. She could see a small figure silhouetted in the light at the top of the ramp. Smaller than either of the couple, almost squat alongside them.
The man and the woman straightened themselves up, as if they were standing to attention. Although they were nervous, they looked at home... in context... standing at the bottom of the ramp of a UFO.
There was a second figure at the top of the ramp. Taller and broader than the first. Together the two men – they were men, there was no doubt about it – began striding down the ramp.
The two alien men stopped in front of the Hunters.
They were both in what looked like military uniform. The shorter of the two men was powerfully built, and wore black combat gear, like a futuristic version of SAS gear. He was old, or in late middle age at least. He was almost bald, but what hair he had was white, and closely cropped.
‘Where is Mr Gibson?’ he barked.
‘He’s guarding the exit,’ the woman replied.
The other man – and Debbie was sure he was their leader – wasn’t as tall as the Hunters, but he was an imposing figure – broad-shouldered, muscular. He wore a green tunic, and a long fur-trimmed greatcoat, and his black boots almost came up to his knees.
Debbie looked back at the Doctor, to see what his reaction was, only to realise that the Doctor was moving forward. She tried to grab his sleeve to stop him, but the Doctor was already too far away.
‘Stick close,’ he suggested. Despite herself, Debbie found that she was following him. The ground was uneven, and she could hear every crunch as she and the Doctor moved across the snow. They were less than fifteen feet away, now. There was a faint hum in the air, like standing near an electricity pylon.
The aliens watched the Doctor approach, clearly caught out by his sudden appearance.
‘Good evening,’ the Doctor declared. ‘I am the Doctor. I come in peace. Take me to your leader. That sort of thing.’
The Hunters and the man in the black coveralls tensed, and seemed ready for a fight. The man in the green tunic was more calm. He turned, and stepped forward. He had wiry hair, steel-grey and tightly curled.
‘I know why you are here,’ the Doctor announced. ‘I know why you are here on Earth.’
The leader stood silently, not giving anything away.
‘You’re here for the girl,’ the Doctor told them. ‘You are here for Miranda.’
If the leader replied, Debbie didn’t hear him.
* * *
Chapter Seven
Inside the Spaceship
Miranda didn’t need much sleep, indeed she could do without it.
She knew this made her different but, usually, it didn’t bother her. She sat at her desk and read. Sometimes she would play with her toys. She didn’t like to make too much noise, in case she woke her parents,